The Arab Music Institute will be opened in Cairo early next year with a big ceremony featuring top singers from the region such as Majida Al Roumi, according to the Arabic daily Al Sharq Al Awsat.

Lebanese singer Roumi will perform a number of songs from the Arabic heritage along with a group of only eight musicians.

The institute building is currently under renovation and it will be equipped with the most-up-to-date audiovisual equipment. It will be developed into a center for Arabic music and will house one museum for Eastern musical instruments and another special one for the late Egyptian singer Mohammed Abdel Wahab. This is in addition to the theater, which will portray Eastern shows.

“The institute’s Arabic music theater will be annexed after inauguration to the opera theaters. A special program that fits its small area and location has been prepared,” Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni told the daily, adding that weekly concerts including Arabic music heritage masterpieces would be performed as part of this program.

The institute was established in 1923 and hosted the first Arabic music conference in 1932, but it was completely neglected in the 1970s. Then it was closed in mid-1980s until a project for developing it was implemented.

The institute's development was supervised by the French museum designer Frank Hamoten, one of the famous designers in Paris who planned buildings including chemistry and biology institutes, a music museum, and the reception lobby at the Fine Arts Museum – Albawaba.com